The present invention relates to an absorbent wearing article and particularly to such an article including elastic members circumferentially extending around front and rear waist regions of the wearer (referred to hereinafter sometimes as fit gathers).
There have already been proposed absorbent wearing articles provided with the fit gathers circumferentially extending around the front and rear waist regions to improve fit of the article around the wearer's waist.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-95692, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein, discloses an absorbent article comprising a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-retentive absorbent structure interposed between these two sheets so as to define a front waist region, a rear waist region and a crotch region wherein the front waist region and/or the rear waist region is or are provided with a plurality of waist elastic members extending in a transverse direction at predetermined intervals. In a region occupied by the absorbent structure, these waist elastic members have elasticity thereof restrained and, outside the opposite side edges of the absorbent structure, these elastic members are fixed to the components of the absorbent wearing article by means of first fastening means so that the elasticity thereof is activated. In the vicinity of borders defined between the regions in which the elasticity is restrained and the regions in which the elasticity is activated, the waist elastic members are fixed to the components of the absorbent article by means of second fastening means.
In the absorbent article disclosed in the aforesaid Publication, the waist elastic members are interposed between two sheets and a tensile stress as well as a draw ratio at which the waist elastic members are attached to the article can be freely determined so that the absorbent article such as a disposable diaper improved in fit, absorption capacity and leakage barrier performance may be provided. However, according to the technique disclosed in the aforesaid Publication, the waist elastic members are not bonded to those two sheets in the region occupied by the absorbent structure and cut off so that the elasticity of the waist elastic members is not activated. In the vicinity of borders defined between the regions in which the elasticity is restrained and the regions in which the elasticity is activated, the waist elastic members are fixed to the components of the absorbent article. With such arrangement, the segments of the waist elastic members having the elasticity restrained are left to contract and to be shortened. Those two sheets are free from the contraction and left to cover the absorbent structure.
Consequentially, the air permeability of the absorbent structure to the ambient air may be deteriorated due to two sheets covering the absorbent structure. In addition, a graphic or logo sometimes printed on the front waist region or the rear waist region of the absorbent wearing article may lose a desired visual quality.